Grover Bramlett, beloved Mississippi sheriff, is
back in his third dazzling mystery. On a rain-swept night in Sheffield, Sheriff
Bramlett steps into the middle of a decades-old clandestine love affair when
a middle-aged furniture salesman is gunned down in the parking lot of his
apartment building. The sheriff soon finds that another unsolved murder could
be related to this crime.

The
Last Family

A Novel by John Ramsey Miller

Bantam Doubleday ($21.95, ISBN: 0553102133)

Publication date: August 1996

Description:

Devastated by guilt after two young agents die while saving his life during a drug raid, DEA agent Paul Masterson fled to the mountains of Montana and secluded himself in a prison of silence. Now his family, whom Paul has not seen in six years, is the final target of a coldly brilliant killer seeking revenge. And to stop this madman, Paul must rediscover his fierce survival instincts.

Its that story again: unsophisticated adolescent
boy, spunky, curious princess, large landscape for them to tour, troublesome
deities, a magic sword. J. Gregory Keyes’s knowledge of epics, myths,
and human cultures is a solid foundation for his series, making it far better
than the average product: a story that might have happened sometime between
the Ice Ages when numinous deities still dwelled in every tree, rock, and pool.
The detailed social structures and customs feel more authentic, though they’re
also familiarthe urban monotheists, the shamanistic horseback nomads,
and so on. The writing is workmanlike, but the anthropological soundness and
echoes of ancient stories give life and dimension to the old archetypes.

Cassies mother told her, Times are hard, honey. With jobs scarce, Cassies daddy had gone to Louisiana to lay track for the railroads to get money to feed his children back in Mississippi. That was when the trouble started. Mr. Andersen dared cheat Big Ma by forcing her to sell the giant old trees in the forest surrounding the house. The trees were Cassies friends, singing her a special song that others insisted was only the wind. What would happen now with daddy away?